Chemistry GCSE - disposal of plastics

Ooh just remembered. The last time we had a tin of quality street in school the tin said the plastic wrappers were biodegradeable so we have saved them for next time we teach this so we can compare. I have done this experiment with a low ability class and it usually needs leaving about a week.
You can also get students to look at the impact that plastics persisting in the environment have on wildlife. This is a good sitehttp://www.turtlebags.co.uk/_wsn/page6.html
It's also worth getting hold of some items made from recycled plastic eg, those little lunch bags they used to have in Boots which were made from 2 'Coke' bottles, fleeces, the pencils that are made from recycled office cups....... Useful to look at the price of the recycled product compared to that made from crude oil.
See I knew I'd remember some stuff when I finally woke up!

I've noticed that our local council seems to be replacing old concrete kerb stones with plastic ones. They are pretty big things and they are using hundreds of them. I can only think they must be made from recycles plastics, probably mixed plastic.

We have a big box of different plastics saved over some time and just as a bit of fun they get to sort it into types using a chart of the various labels that they have on them. Not very educational but they do get to appreciate the range of different plastics that things are made from. I personally have a thing about polypropylene, it's very smooooooth!